ESPN has Clippers drafting Kansas Center Cole Aldrich

With the Clippers now moving up to the 8th pick, from the 10th last week, ESPN now has the Clippers drafting Kansas Center Cole Aldrich.

After watching how many layups Chris Kaman missed over the past month I love this move! I've seen enough of the Caveman, and would be so happy going into next season with DJ and Cole as our two big man options. Package Kaman and our 2011 pick and trade him for anything we can get!

I'd either want Cole Aldrich, or pray that one of the two stud Small Forwards (Wesley Johnson or Al-Faroug Aminu) falls to the Clippers. Johnson would be the guy able to take last second shots we currently lack. Aminu is the longest small forward prospect I've ever heard of and would provide stellar defense and Gerald Wallace like rebounding at the 3 spot.

What are your opinions on potential draft picks in the #7 or #8 spot?

ekker3

04/05/2010 - 04:44 PM PST

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LABraves4Life wrote:

With the Clippers now moving up to the 8th pick, from the 10th last week, ESPN now has the Clippers drafting Kansas Center Cole Aldrich.
After watching how many layups Chris Kaman missed over the past month I love this move! I've seen enough of the Caveman, and would be so happy going into next season with DJ and Cole as our two big man options. Package Kaman and our 2011 pick and trade him for anything we can get!
I'd either want Cole Aldrich, or pray that one of the two stud Small Forwards (Wesley Johnson or Al-Faroug Aminu) falls to....

i like both LABraves or ekkers packaging ideas, but it all depends on what pick we get. we can REALLY settle this after the lottery

BoomDizzle21

04/05/2010 - 05:19 PM PST

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I would say the #7 or #8 pick would probably not priduce a starter right away since this draft class is rather weak.

I'd much rather trade our pick and Kaman to the Pistons for Hamilton then draft Favors or Cousins with their top five pick. The way i see it we need to move up in the draft and get rid of Kaman's huge contract (so we can sign a max free agent) if we have hope of making the playoffs next year.

ClipfanSince88

04/05/2010 - 06:13 PM PST

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First, on a more general note (and this is not intended to criticize the thread), I think its pretty silly to be projecting who teams might draft before the season is over and the lottery is held. Judging by the standings and remaining schedules, we definitely could sink even lower than 8 by the time the season is over. Plus, you never know how the ping pong balls might bounce.

Second, as to Aldrich, I wouldn't be in favor of picking him. From what I've seen of him (and admittedly its not much), he would not be an upgrade over Kaman. If that's the best we could do in the draft, like Ekker, I'd be in favor of shopping the pick.

journeyman

04/05/2010 - 06:20 PM PST

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ClipfanSince88 wrote:

First, on a more general note (and this is not intended to criticize the thread), I think its pretty silly to be projecting who teams might draft before the season is over and the lottery is held. Judging by the standings and remaining schedules, we definitely could sink even lower than 8 by the time the season is over. Plus, you never know how the ping pong balls might bounce.
Second, as to Aldrich, I wouldn't be in favor of picking him. From what I've seen of him (and admittedly its not much), he would not be an....

Assuming we don't move up in the draft, there will be no decent SFs available to us at 7 - 9... I wouldn't be opposed to drafting a center (in principal anyway since I haven't seen much of Aldrich) and trading Kaman for help at the SF, providing we get quality help. It would make some sense since I don't believe we're going to get any of the big F/A... Wade, Bosh and Lebron aren't coming... Rudy and Johnson we would have to overpay for... If we make the right move and use our cap space to facilitate a trade to bring in a good player, we can be fine for next year...

tdots

04/05/2010 - 08:28 PM PST

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We just need to draft by talent and not by position. If we don't get a Wade, Johnson, or Lebron, I would want to trade Kaman for Tayshun Prince and sign Bosh or Amare.

jcdigital

04/05/2010 - 08:30 PM PST

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they only have us drafting cole aldrich because he is the 10th best available in their opinion....we still have to just wait for the lottery in May and then we will know really where we stand and who will be the best available when we draft....

btw it also shows us taking Xavier Henry so we will see

BINGO!

04/06/2010 - 12:09 PM PST

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does anyone know when the lottery will take place?

clipperboy24

04/06/2010 - 02:43 PM PST

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Cole Aldrich is definitely < Kaman

Kaman is seriously undervalued on here and very reasonably paid. Thats what people dont understand about the Baron hating. baron is paid closer to the top for his position and age while Kaman is right in the middle of the pack for Centers but far outperforming the rest of the centers minus Dwight Howard, Duncan and maybe Amare (if you really consider him a Center). All those players make $7 million more than Kaman so i dont think it makes sense to try and replace Kaman unless we can get another "Proven" quality big.

I still think that a wing player is the way to go. Aminu looks solid to me. Maybe we can go down the Mike Dunleavy Jr. route and picking up another 1st round pick and nab Singler later in the 1st round:)

clipperstown

04/06/2010 - 02:59 PM PST

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I actually wouldn't mind mind keeping kaman( obviously, top 3 center in the NBA), and drafting Cole. we play kaman at starting C and deandre can be kaman's backup. BG is gonan be our starting PF and Cole can be his backup. having a frontcourt backup pair of deandre and cole would be awesome defensively. and this would work because gooden and smith will be waived to make room for max contract, so this works out perfectly.

rick0314

04/06/2010 - 04:02 PM PST

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May 18th, at half time of a playoff game

SamMays

04/06/2010 - 04:03 PM PST

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As long as we have Kaman, Griffin and DJ, we have no use for Cole Aldrich... We have a potentially better C in big Sofo already... We shouldn't use a top ten pick on a guy who will be well back in the depth chart when we are very thin at the 1, 2, and 3 spots. That said, there doesn't seem to be much quality help there that will fall to us...

If we draft someone like Aldrich, it should be to trade, either him or one of our bigs to get the help we need.

ClipThemOff

04/06/2010 - 07:07 PM PST

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the idea of trading Kaman for Prince or anyone on the Pistons is completely a bad idea...i bet the Piston fans are saying the same thing about trying to trade Prince for Kaman because they are probably tired of him

Kaman is way undervalued and i don't want to give up on DJ so i dont think a center is the answer here

jcdigital

04/06/2010 - 11:32 PM PST

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cole aldrich has no place on this team...if we draft him he is just trade bait because he was just best available....we will see where we land in the draft and if you want just try this out

If we're taking a center, we might as well take Whiteside. I want no part of Aldrich.

jcdigital

04/06/2010 - 11:54 PM PST

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if we get Aldrich we could most likely get a good trade with Utah cuz there is no way they want to pass on a chance to get the next ostertag lol

BINGO!

04/07/2010 - 12:51 AM PST

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rick0314 wrote:

BINGO! wrote:

does anyone know when the lottery will take place?

May 18th, at half time of a playoff game

thanks

jcdigital

04/08/2010 - 12:07 AM PST

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btw has anyone looked at darington hobson? He is a 6'7" guard who has been running the point guard position, SG position, and SF position for new mexico all season and seems to be a sleeper in this draft! Unless someone is willing to trade us for aldrich with something really good, id say we should maybe use our pick if its pretty low to get darington hobson cuz he's definitely got more potential in my eyes that some of the guys further down the draft list.

C2H!

04/08/2010 - 12:53 AM PST

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I really hope we can get one of the SF's...otherwise there isn't much in this draft that can help us.

After you get through the top 4 players, I'm not seeing anyone who jumps out... It's two future stars, Wall and Turner... Then two very good prospects, Favors and Cousins and then a bunch of guys who may or may not make it... I'm not sold on Wesley Johnson or Aminu... I'm pretty sure Monroe, who I've watched play a lot, is a bust as is Stanley Robinson... I'm not sure 8 gives you a better player than 15... It just gives you your choice of a player who will bust or not bust... I wouldn't be opposed to trading 8 down for two players... Especially when good prospects at the positions we need, 1,2,3 will be gone by # 8 and we can have them at 15 - 25.

clipperstown

04/08/2010 - 11:18 AM PST

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yeah i pretty much agree with everyone else, we can just package the pick (if it's 5-14) along with someone from our roster to get a really good wing. all i really want is a good defender who can shoot. and hopefully under the age of 26.

clipperboy24

04/08/2010 - 11:27 AM PST

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i would love for the clipps to get Hobson. He looks like the second coming of Granger and not just because they both played at new Mexico. We could make up for our initial mistake of taking korolev over Granger.

SamMays

04/08/2010 - 11:42 AM PST

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I haven't seen Hobson play, but most of the mock drafts and scouting reports have him listed as a second round guy. If so, he can easily be gotten.

clipperboy24

04/08/2010 - 12:06 PM PST

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Justlooked at a draftwrite up on draftexpress and I think James Anderson should be someone we look at as well. I know he has some defensive liabilities but he could be a nice shooting SF we could really use. Also for Heyward, i dont really see him being fast enough or a good enough shooter to really be a good addition to the clipps. Pondexter though would definitely be interesting.

One thing that was realy interesting is draftexpress had hobson ranked as second round. I think he is worth taking a chance on late first round so mayb a trade would work well. All of this is pure speculation though as we dont know where the ping pong balls will land

TheDude

04/08/2010 - 01:21 PM PST

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clipperboy24 wrote:

Justlooked at a draftwrite up on draftexpress and I think James Anderson should be someone we look at as well. I know he has some defensive liabilities but he could be a nice shooting SF we could really use. Also for Heyward, i dont really see him being fast enough or a good enough shooter to really be a good addition to the clipps. Pondexter though would definitely be interesting.
One thing that was realy interesting is draftexpress had hobson ranked as second round. I think he is worth taking a chance on late first round so....

yeah i like that idea cuz im definitely not sold on wes johnson because it seems like for as quick and athletic as he is, he isnt a defensive stopper so basically it would be like having a younger rasual butler at his best.... in addition, i have a fear that Aminu will be like Al Thornton in the sense that he has all this althetic ability and is explosive but doesnt really have an allround game.... but who knows i could be completely wrong! All i kno is that hobson is a 6'7" SF that can play both the....

and heyward has bust written all over him in my eyes....they say he is a more athletic mike dunleavy but idk....he seems to not have a step on even some of the bigger forwards in college which scares me for what might happen in the NBA and also i dont think his shot is that great or THAT much of a threat to be effective in the NBA.

david

04/09/2010 - 03:37 PM PST

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Yeah I like James Anderson's stats as well- the guy is a shooter, a scorer and can rebound and get to the free throw line.

david

04/09/2010 - 03:39 PM PST

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That guy looks like a solid 2nd rounder- almost 5 assists a game- that is pretty impressive.

jcdigital

04/12/2010 - 12:51 PM PST

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im wondering..what do you guys think about the second part of my post? the part about maybe drafting a defender. Any team that is actually a good team has a defensive stopper like shane battier, ron artest, pietrus, etc.
We currently have guys who can play decent D like Gordon, and butler and sometimes baron but butler lacks the athleticism in lateral quickness but has the height and smarts, gordon lacks height but has great lateral quickness and hands, and baron lacks the lateral quickness but has the physical toughness and hands. Today Devin Ebanks just announced he will....